Chapter Five

Kiss Me While I'm Angry

Matthew's day couldn't possibly get any worse. The power had gone out in the middle of the night while he was sleeping, so his alarm didn't go off and he overslept. After skipping his morning shower as well as breakfast, he was still late to work and received a rather stern talking to from his father. Of course, given his continuing luck, his phone died before lunch and he didn't have the chance to charge it, his lunch was rushed because Francis needed his help about half way through his break and didn't slow until closing. His father had him close the shop and clean up as punishment for being late and Matthew knew he was going to be late for his date with Gilbert. He knew his boyfriend would be upset, but he didn't have the man's number memorized and with his phone dead and his charger at home, there was no way to contact him and let him know.

Matthew locked up the salon as quickly as possible and with one last tug at the door, he turned and ran for his car, digging around in his bag for his keys.

"Shit," he cursed, stomping his foot as he realized that he had left them on the counter inside. Turning back around, it took only a couple minutes to pull out the salon keys, unlock the door and rush inside, but it was more time wasted when he was already at least half an hour late to his date.

He had fully expected his car not to start when he turned the key, but much to his relief, it purred to life and he was pulling out of the parking lot much too fast to be safe.

Of course it took another half an hour to reach the theatre due to construction he had forgotten about, and when he finally came running up to the entrance, he was relieved to find Gilbert sitting out front.

"Gil!" Matthew cried with a smile.

Gilbert looked up and stood abruptly, rushing towards Matthew.

"What the hell, Matthew!" he cried.

Matthew blinked and stepped back in shock, not quite expecting this amount of anger.

"You're angry Gil…." Matthew said softly.

"Of course I'm fucking angry Matthew! I don't even know why I waited! It's been over an hour! The movie's half-done already! I cannot believe you would try to stand me up like this! Why did you even come here? IF you didn't want to see the fucking movie just say so, if you think you're too good for me, just call this whole damn thing off. I don't appreciate being led on Matthew, I don't—"

"Mon dieu, Gilbert! Shut up!" Matthew grabbed Gilbert's face and pressed their lips roughly together.

Pulling away, the both stared at each other, wide eyed and panting slightly. "Let me explain," Matthew said softly.

Gilbert still looked rather upset, but he pressed his lips together and finally nodded.

"So many things have gone wrong today Gil, I know it's not an excuse, but trust me when I tell you my phone died and I did everything I could to be here on time," Matthew said, pulling out his phone to prove that it was indeed dead.

Gilbert frowned and after a tense moment, he sighed. "Fine, but we missed the movie and you owe me. Big time."

"I'll make it up to you, I promise."

Gilbert nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets and headed to the crosswalk.

"You're still mad," Matthew observed.

"No, well, yes, but not at you, more at the situation. I was really looking forward to tonight, you know? Just, I can't help but be a little upset, even if you tried your best to be here on time."

"I understand, will ice cream help?" Matthew asked as the light changed and they crossed the street.

Gilbert tried to hide his smirk. "Maybe a little. But it's going to take more than just a couple scoops of frozen milk product to make up for this."

Matthew chuckled, "Fair." He smiled and slid his hand into Gilbert's.

And though it wasn't as strong as usual, Gilbert smiled back.